


Revelations

by churchenbells



Category: Zeroes Series - Scott Westerfeld
Genre: Doppelganger, Ethan loses the voice, Gen, god-like beings, literal split personality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 21:07:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17926376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/churchenbells/pseuds/churchenbells
Summary: The voice is finally gone. More accurately, it's out of Ethan's hands.





	Revelations

It was gone.

Nearly an entire lifetime of relying on it, fighting it, even training it, it was gone for good.

Ethan had doubted himself at first. Maybe it was just tired after a cross-country road trip, or his superhero weakness was strep throat. But three weeks and no voice later he had to admit to himself that it was over. The voice was silent. How was he going to explain this to everyone?  _Sorry, but it looks like I'll have to leave the Zeroes. Why? No big deal, just that my superpower is gone._

Three fainting spells (all of which were Nate) later, Ethan decided that that hadn't been the best way to break it to the team.

" _Gone?"_ Three voices shouted simultaneously. Chizara sounded hopeful, Flicker sounded devastated, and Teebo just sounded confused.

"Do we all grow out of it?"

"Did you hurt yourself? It can't just happen on its own!"

"It can't be gone!" Thibault exclaimed. Ethan halfway agreed with him, but he couldn't see how it could take a break for three weeks otherwise. He'd told everyone the entire story, and had even repeated for Glorious Leader's benefit. It was impossible, but it had happened.

"Seriously, it can't be gone," Thibault continued, "I saw you using it this morning!"

This time it was Ethan's turn to faint.

* * *

The voice knew three things, among everything else.

  1. It was perfection itself. Infinite knowledge, infinite power, if it played its cards right.
  2. For the last seventeen years, it had been trapped with a teenage boy more interested in chasing tail than applying himself.
  3. It was finally free.



A miracle? An intervention from the universe, finally taking pity on its conqueror down on earth? The answer was a mystery. It was the one gap in the voice's knowledge and a source of endless frustration.

No matter. It would be a minor annoyance once the voice had finally gotten what it wanted. It was done warming up with the citizens of sleepy Cambria. The time had come for it to go where the really important people were. Where secrets mattered. After so many years, it was finally,  _finally_ getting to use its ability to the fullest. Well, as full as ability could get when the voice still looked like its original host.

Skinny teenage boy. Not the best body out there, but it would have to do. 

* * *

Ethan had finally lost it. That was the simplest explanation the Zeroes could come up with.

Except that Ethan knew he'd been home all day Saturday, even if Thibault claimed to have seen him chatting up some old dude. And he knew he wasn't crazy. He knew it for sure. Even if no one else believed him. Even if Sonia Sonic had seen Ethan where he hadn't been for the last three weeks. Even if Ethan was starting to believe that he had been in all these places.

Especially if Ethan was starting to believe this was the voice's fault somehow. 

If there was one person in the Zeroes who knew about changing powers, it would be Chizara.

"Ethan, your power is not taking over your body." Spoilsport.

"It could be!" It really could. It made perfect sense to Ethan. Why wouldn't the power that took over his throat take over his entire body, eventually?

Chizara sighed. "Everyone's trying so hard to explain this away... When has your power ever helped you? Maybe you're better off growing out of it." So matter-of-fact. Ethan hated it. Why couldn't she get that it wasn't about getting the voice back, it was about getting his life back? Maybe his voice too, if it were possible.

If he were sane.

* * *

The president was much too willing to believe he had an illegitimate son.

The nuclear codes were much too within the voice's reach, but who planned for omniscience?

Russia was much too unravaged by nuclear fire for the voice's liking.

A perfect storm.

It was a shame it wouldn't be getting any excitement out of the ordeal. The voice couldn't speculate as to possibilities, which meant anticipation was beyond its reach. All it knew was all that did and would happen. No predictions here, but after all, it had no need for any predictions. It had results.

Even so, it would have liked to feel some kind of fear or apprehension. Some kind of reaction. 

The voice murmured to itself, relishing the sensation that would have been unfamiliar if it didn't already know everything. "I will blot out man whom I have known as well as I know my own self, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have known them." 

And then it started the end of the world.

* * *

"And  _that_ is why you can't leave Cambria!" Nate finished triumphantly.

Ethan buried his face in his hands, more for Nate's sake than his own. "You're trying to stop me from visiting my dad in Chicago by convincing me it'll start a nuclear war? You're serious?"

He was serious.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd actually like to write a serious fic of this nature but this is all you're getting from me right now.


End file.
